RF ministry of industry sets up commission to probe into An-12 crash in Irkutsk region

MOSCOW, December 27, 22:43 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s ministry of industry and trade has set up a special commission to investigate the crash of an An-12 transport plane in Russia’s Siberian Irkutsk region, the ministry said in release on Friday, citing a resolution signed by Minister Denis Manturov.

The commission will be led by Andrei Boginsky, the director of the ministry’s department of the aviation industry. Along with the ministry’s officials, the commission includes specialists of the Irkut corporation, the owner of the crashed plane, experts from the United Aircraft-building Corporation, pilots, representatives from the Antonov aircraft building company and leading experts from research organizations.

The An-12 plane that was carrying aircraft components from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk crashed at about 21:45, local time, (16:45 Moscow time) in the vicinity of the Batareinaya station of the East Siberian railway on December 26 during landing approach. According to the investigation, at a distance of one kilometre from the landing strip the aircraft disappeared from the radars. The plane’s wings hit the roofs of warehouses on the territory of an army unit and fell down. It was partially destroyed. All those on board - six crewmembers and three persons accompanying the cargo - were killed. A criminal case was opened over the air crash on charges of violations of the rules of aircraft traffic safety and operation resulting in the death of two and more persons through negligence (part 3, article 263 of the Russian Criminal Code). Three main theories of the accident are being considered: bad weather, piloting error and malfunction of the aircraft.